Opening Shots

For starters, to answer some questions.  Why this title?  As Sunday approaches each week sometimes eagerly anticipated, other times viewed with trepidation, depending on how responsive I am to the Spirit's leading on a sermon I find myself musing over the week's text.  I typically call this allowing the text and my own thoughts on it to "marinate" much as I will marinate a good piece of meat before putting it on the grill.  Sermons don't fall from the sky gift-wrapped for me, though I wish they did.  Instead they must marinate.  To use another cooking analogy, like good chili they must simmer a few hours.
What about that website name?  What gives with "One Good Port?"  The short answer is that this was the heart of the title of my M.A. Thesis in history from my former life.  A Union Navy officer opined that if they could seize Beaufort Harbor, NC they would "have one good port."  He was prophetic in that the harbor did prove to be decisive in stopping the blockade running in and out of Wilmington, NC.  For the Christian though, these words have a much more important meaning.  Various times each week we the church gather in worship, study, fellowship, etc. These meetings are our port.  We can return there from time to time to escape the storms that life throws at us, to restore our souls, but ultimately our mission can no more be accomplished there than a warship can accomplish its mission without leaving port.  The Christian life is following "the Way" out there in the real world between gatherings.  Even more importantly, though, we all have another port; another safe harbor.  Ultimately Christ Jesus is our port.  He is our shelter from all the ills of the world.  In Him we are forgiven, healed, and restored.  So as you read this, put into port regularly, He's a really good one.